This is not mine!!!

Three weeks ago, we moved into a brand-new home. In this brand-new home, there is a master bedroom, complete with master bathroom and master walk-in closet. This is a delicious treat for me; something I never even dared to dream I would have. There is no need for a child to enter this room, but enter they do. And they leave their little markings behind.

This is a list of things currently invading my nice, new master bedroom. Which is not a child's bedroom.

1. A 24-piece puzzle, scattered over a distance of about three feet.

2. A pen with a furry pony for a cap.

3. Two small cars that belong to a train/car table thing my two boys received for Christmas.

4. Four drafts of an essay clearly titled, "How to Make Aries Mine!" - Aries being a pony my daughter is in love with.

5. My daughter's toothbrush.

6. A large plastic excavator that makes sounds and lights up.

7. One American Girl doll jacket, for a doll.

8. A pair of girl's size 8 embroidered jeans.

9. A chip clip.

10. One pair of size 4 Care Bears underwear - I think it's Sunshine bear, I really don't know.

11. A stuck-together, tangled-up mess of a roll of scotch tape.

12. A plastic Winnie the Pooh cereal bowl.

13. A million socks that have no mates. Most are pink or purple, striped or flowered, grey or blue, decorated with a car or bear. . .

14. A pink bead necklace my daughter claims her friend left here.

15. Half of a Whiz Kids deck of cards.

16. A Music Maker my 8 year old got for her birthday that she earnestly pleaded for, begging for her chance to have an "instrument", to "make music", she "needs" it. The sheet music is crumpled and in a state of disarray and the guitar pick to play it with is definitely lost.

17. Not exactly a 'thing', per say, but the master bath's counter has a nice, cloudy film over it where my daughter decided to clean it for me.


What say I? I say that while trying to keep the one year old from falling down the stairs to the main level and the two year old from getting into the paint with which we're painting our daughter's bedroom and keeping the four year old from trying on every item of clothing she owns, every single day, and keeping the eight year old from teasing a smaller child to tears and keeping a husband happy while going on the third week without cable television (there's been a lot of screaming and finger-pointing about a certain local cable company) . . . I say I'm doing okay. I also say, "THIS IS NOT MINE!!!!"

(Are they listening???)